Molded forms of bitumen



R. P. PERRY.

MOLDED FORM OF BITUMEN. 'APPLICATION FILED APR. I4. 191'6.

1,327,354. J mm Jams, 1920.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RAY POTTER PERRY, OF MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE BARRETT COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF WEST VIRGINIA.

MOLDED FORMS OF BITTIIVIEN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 6, 1920.

Application filed April 14, 1916. Serial No. 91,121.

- the following is a specification.

My invention consists of new and improved molded forms of bitumen, particularly hard coal tar pitches, adapted for convenient handling, storage, shipping and subsequent manufacturing uses. According to my invention the bitumen is taken from the previous manufacturing process, usually in a hot, molten condition, and is cooled by any convenient means, to a suitable workable temperature, formed into continuous sheets or strands, and usually further cooled to requisite temperature for storage or handling.

As is well known in the art, artificial bitumens, as for example, coal tar pitches, are prepared for different uses in many different degrees of hardness, ranging from those very soft and pliable at usual atmospheric temperatures, to those which are very hard and brittle at such temperatures. Although my process may be used with most, if not all of these different grades, it is of particular value in handling coal tar pitches which are hard and brittle at normal atmospheric temperature.

' These pitches are manufactured by subjecting coal tar to heat in a still and distilling off certain volatile oils, leaving a residue pitch which comes from such manu facturing process in a hot, molten condition. This is usually transferred to storage tanks where it is allowed to cool somewhat and is then run into barrels, iron molds or pitch bays, or is formed into globular bodies by dropping it from an elevation into water. These processes have certain inherent disadvantages. The use of barrels involves the expense of filling and handling, and loss of the barrels which are broken up when the pitch is to be used. Iron molds may be employed and may be used repeatedly but gradually wear out and require expense in handling, filling, emptying, etc. If the pitch is run into bays or bins, it requires considerable expense for their construction and also additional expense when it is later necessary to break or pick it out for shipping. The forming of the pitch into globular bodies, such as for example, in accordance with the procedure described in the patent to C. N. Stevens, #1',088,635, dated Feb. 24, 1914, presents a considerable advance over the previous art, but still involves certain disadvantages in that the pitch shot or globules are usually formed quite hot, and in practice require cooling in Water in addition to that received in dropping through the air, and the drying out of the entrained water to reduce the pitch to merchantable condition, involves considerable additional expense. My improved process obviates allthese disadvantages. 1

After the pitch has been treated by my process it can be easily handled or shoveled into conveyers for use or shipment. The hard brittle pieces may be readily ground or melted and mixed with coke, etc., for making carbon electrodes, or ground and mixed with other ingredients to make core compounds used by foundrymen. These uses are merely suggestive, and many other uses will be obvious to those familiar with the art. The softer grades which do not become brittle, such as soft grades of pitch or asphalt, may be wound up in rolls either with or without soapstone or other'antisticking material to keep the adjoining convolutions from adhering, as more particularly set forth in my co-pending application Serial No. 214,237, filed January 28, 1918.

In the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, forming part of this specification,

Figure 1 shows a side elevation of an'apparatus designed for the'working of my .process Fig. 2 shows a plan view of the same. Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, 1 represents a supply pipe'through which the hot, molten coal tar pitch is conducted from its previous manufacture .or storage, tothe tank 2, in which it is cooled to working temperature, which is preferably about 25 to 50 F. above the so-called melting point of the pitch, although my process will Work within considerable range of temperature, say up to about 200 above, and say down to about.

75 below, the melting -point, depending upon the melting point and kind of pitch employed.

' The pitch at such preferable 'or working temperature is conducted continuously from one-sixteenth of an inch.

To prevent adhesion of the pitch to the rolls 5, 5, various expedients may be employed, such as dampening the rolls, or dusting them with soa stone, or other powdered mineral, but I pre er to cool the rolls by circulating a cooling liquid such as water will be in hard'and brittle condition, so as.

to readily break up into convenient size for.

therethrough, as by meansof axially disposed inlet pipe ,7 and outlet pipe 8. As the sheet of pitch 9. is carried forward by the conveyer 6 which ,runs' at about the same surface speed as that of the rolls 5, the pitch is further cooled down to preferably about 100 to 150 F., not onlybythe atmosphere but bythe air jets 10 so that when the pitch is delivered at the end of the conveyer, it

handling, transportation, &c. 'If desired, as for example with the. softer grades of pitches, water may be sprayed upon the pitch film from the jets 10 instead of air. Usually no water is used in my process. If particularly soft or sticky pitch or asphalt is used, some water may be required, but in such cases the amount of water is so regulated it is substantially entirely evaporated by the time the pitch or asphalt reaches the end of the conveyer, so that the bituminous material may be and is. preferably rendered dry in this way. The variance of initial temperature of the pitch as applied to. the rolls, together with the length and adjusted interspacing of the rolls, their speed, the

length of conveyer, and facilities for cooling of the film or sheet of pitch, obviously may be varied to suit all conditions and requirements of the work. With a sheet of pitch of uniform thickness the fragments of the same'will have the same thickness, as distinguished from large lumps or other forms of the material, as produced by other and common methods.

The molded bodies of bitumen or pitch, or fra ments of sameare independent and non-ad erent to other bodies or materials.

These bodies when in the form of sheets will if broken have two substantially parallel Yfacesand sharp angular corners/ My product, for example, may be a sheet of hard pitch or bitumen, which'is indeendent of and non-adherent to any other ody or material as distinguished from a filament orsheet of pitch or bitumen'deposited on and adherent to a sheet of paper or felt, as in the manufacture of roofings.

above described may be dusted with soapstone or the like in order to reduce or remove the adherent cementitious propertles inherent in said surfaces. To prevent my molded bodies, particularly those of softer grades, from being adherent to other bodies, I may dust their surfaces with soapstone, talc or other similar anti-sticking material, which reduces or removes the adherent or cementitious properties from said surfaces.

When I use the term non-adherent in my claims I mean to indicate such condition as described in this paragraph;

The term relativel thin as used in the claims denotes that t ickness which is insufiicient to cause the pitch to harden unevenly or so slowly as to render the same soft, and I disclaim accordingl as being included within the scope ofsuc term, any body of bitumen exceeding of an inch in thickness. 1

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. The herein described product comprising non-adherent, relatively thin, isolated bodies of bitumen having two substantially parallel faces not more than gof an inch apart.

2. The herein described product comprising non-adherent, isolated bodies of bitumen having two substantially parallel faces not more than of an inch apart, said bodies being relatively thin, hard, and sufficiently brittle to readily break up into convenient size for handling and transportation.

3. The herein described intermediate product comprising non-adherent, relatively thin, isolated sheets of pitch having two substantially parallel faces not more than of an inchapart.

4. The herein described intermediate product comprising non-adherent, isolated sheets of pitch, having two substantially parallel faces not more than a of an inch apart, said sheets being relatively thin, hard, and sufficiently brittle to readily break up into convenient size for handling and transportation. 5. The herein described product comprising non-adherent, relatively thin, fragments of bitumen having two substantially parallel III of pitch having tW 'O substantially parallel faces' not more than -2 of an inch apart and angular corners, said fragments being relatively hard and brittle. 7. The herein described product comprising non-adherent fragmentsof bitumen, be-

ing about of an inch'inthickness and having two substantially parallel faces and an gular corners, said fragments being relatively hard and brittle.

Signed at New York, in the bounty of New York and State of New York, this 4th day of April, 1916.

RAY POTTER PERRY. 

